East Coast: Day 11 and Day 12

Day 11 of the my east coast trip was a long and busy day. I started the day by driving from my hotel in Oxon Hill, MD to the nearby Metro station. I took the Metro, the subway for the greater Washington D.C. area, to the National Mall in the heart of Washington D.C. I first walked around the U.S. Capitol Building. I then decided to walk across the National Mall to get my bearings, find a map, and see many of the historic memorials and monuments. From the Washington Monument, I walked around the tidal basin to the Jefferson, FDR, and MLK Jr. Memorials. I then walked through the Korean War, Lincoln, and Vietnam Memorials. I then completed my trek around the National Mall by going through the Constitution Gardens and the World War II Memorial. At each of the monuments and memorials, I got a cancelation stamp in my national parks passport. I then walked toward the White House. I stopped at the White House visitor center and watch a video on the history of the building.

At this point I needed to find a FedEx Office to print the ticket for the Nationals game that I had bought on Stubhub the night before. The nearest FedEx Office was right next to the Old Post Office Tower and Ford's Theater. After I printed off my ticket, I went to the top of the Old Post Office Tower. The view from the top of the tower was pretty awesome as you could see the entire National Mall. I also went through the museum at Ford's Theater and kind of relearned the events that lead up to Lincoln's assassination.

I only had time to go to one of the many Smithsonian's museums. It was a pretty easy decision to go to the National Air and Space Museum. I made sure I went through the exhibit on jet engines in my limited time. It was also cool that there was a autonomous drone at the museum that was powered by a Williams International engine. I could have spent an entire day at the Air and Space Museum but I only ended up spending 2 hours at the museum before I took off for Nationals Park. I have previously blogged about my experience at this ballpark. After the game, I took the Metro back to my car and drove to my hotel.

The last day of the trip (Day 12) was purely a travel day. I drove from my hotel in Oxon Hill, MD back to Ann Arbor. Despite the internet prediction of a 8.5 hour drive, the drive ended up taking me almost 11 hours thanks to heavy traffic around D.C. and Toledo, OH. Even though I had a blast on the trip, traveling was exhausting and it was good to finally relax.

Ballpark: Nationals Park

On Tuesday, June 4, I attended my seventh and final ballpark on my east coast trip: Nationals vs. Mets at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. Like so many of the other ballparks on this trip, public transportation made getting to the ballpark very easy. Right off the Metro, there were a couple of outdoor bars that had shipping containers for fences, keeping with the theme of Navy Yard neighborhood. I could tell that this was the place to be before and after games. Since I was by myself I decided to forgo the bar and watch batting practice. This decision paid off as I was able to catch a ball!

I have a hit-or-miss success with StubHub.com in finding tickets; sometimes they are cheaper and sometimes they are more expensive. For this game I got a great deal on my seat: $8 for a field level seat. Nationals Park opened in 2008 but is not a "retro" ballpark. There are a few statues at the main gate for Walter Johnson and Josh Gibson but the Nationals recently relocated from Montreal so there is not a lot of history for the organization. You can make out the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument beyond centerfield but it is a long ways away and not a focus of the ballpark. The thing that stood out to me about Nationals Park was the shape of the second and third decks. The second deck runs around 90% of the field level seats with the opening in left field. In straight away centerfield, there is a bar/porch area called the Red Porch. A third deck is split: one portion in right field and another portion that runs from first base to the left field foul pole. In between the the second and third decks between first base to the left field foul pole, there are several openings that allow fans to view the entire field from the concourse. In one opening, there is an opposing opening that looks onto the Navy Yard neighborhood. This creates a opening that allows you to look straight through the stadium when looking from centerfield. One part of the park I do not like is the bullpen locations. Being a park with limited foul ground (inspired by Oriole Park at Camden Yards), it seems like the designers forgot about the bullpens and had to cut stands out of the ballpark to put them in. This results in many field-level outfield seats that are well away from the playing field. I think a stacked staggered configuration (like Citizens Bank Park) would result in more seats closer to the action.

There is a wide variety of concessions offered at Nationals Park, with the better concessions located in centerfield. I saw a Shake Shack, Blue Smoke BBQ, a taco stand (all three are coincidentally at Citi Field), a falafel sandwich stand, and of course the traditional ballpark cuisine. I went for the half-smoke sausage from Ben's Chili Bowl as recommended by Men's Journal. This was a sausage topped with chili, cheese, and onions. It was probably tied with the CaliDog I had at Angels Stadium as the best stadium so far. Beside concessions and souvenir shops, there are also life size bobble-heads of a few former presidents around the concourse. There are also mascots of five presidents who race during the end of an inning. The President Race was the most excited between inning promotion I have seen thus far.

It was my third time seeing the Mets on this trip, and the second time I saw them play in a thriller. Jordan Zimmermann and Jeremy Hefner duked it out in a pitchers' duel. Ian Desmond's solo homerun and Omar Quintanilla's two-run, two-out triple (unearned) provided the only scoring until the bottom of the 9th. With the Mets up 2-1, Ryan Zimmerman lead off the half-inning against Mets' closer Bobby Parnell with a double off the out-of-town scoreboard in center. Mets' centerfielder Rick Ankiel made the double interesting by almost throwing out Zimmerman at second base. After a wild pitch, Adam Laroche singled in the tying run. Ian Desmond split the outfielder in right center for a double and Steve Lombardozzi gave the Nats the win with a walk-off sacrifice fly. This was the third walk-off out of seven games on the east coast trip!

My take-way from Nationals Park is that it is ballpark for the 21st century. It is fitting that the ballpark doesn't try to be a throwback since the organization moved to Washington from Montreal not too long ago. The ballpark has the baseball feel and there is little to complain about aside from the minor bullpen issue. If MLB were to expand to 31 teams, this new team would be wise to use Nationals Park as a template for their new stadium instead of trying to create a "retro" atmosphere based on no tradition.